Saturday, July 23rd
Riders: John, Jen, Fiona, Jim, Michelle, Dave G., Dave B., Keith, Nate, Hakim, Bill W., Steve, Randall, me, and one quiet gentleman who I did not get a chance to meet.
Amazingly this was the first time I was able to get to the Tolland Bike ride this year. I will definitely remedy that as it worked perfectly into my schedule this weekend. I still wanted to ride but knew that I had some schoolwork and house stuff to do and this ride got me home by 10:15am with 25 miles under my belt. I might ride from home next time to get a little extra mileage in. Plus I got to see a bunch of people I hadn’t seen in forever and met a few new ones. I pulled in to the parking lot at about 10 minutes of 8 and only Bill was in the parking lot. Even at about 2 minutes to 8 it was pretty much just me and Bill then all of a sudden bikes pulled in from everywhere. Apparently most people ride from their house to this ride (which is a great idea!). So we pulled out of the parking lot with 15 riders, wow! This is billed as a moderate, no drop ride and that is exactly what it was. A great ride for catching up with old friends, meeting new riders, and still being able to punch it now and then up or down the hills. We regrouped at the turns then about 40 minutes in Dave B. split off at North River Road with a group that wanted to finish a bit earlier and the rest of the crew headed up 44 and took a right onto 31. One feature of riding from home is that you can split off toward the end of the ride and head home. So our numbers kept dwindling until 4 of us finished the ride, I got dropped off at the parking lot and the other 3 riders rode home. A very nice start to an overcast Saturday morning, I really enjoyed chatting with everyone. I’m looking forward to the next one! – Jill
Nerac Earth Cycling 